I found a Dec. 2009 PH document at http://www.docstoc.com/docs/32523904/Pizza-Hut-Ingredients-Aug-04 that shows, at page 2, the ingredients that go into a PH/Edge Thin 'N Crispy pizza, to wit: Water and a pre-mix that includes enriched and malted bleached flour, salt, yeast, sugar, soybean oil and sucralose. Pre-mixes are intended to be used at the store level, so it is not clear where the PH T&C pizza using the above ingredients is intended to be made. It could be outside of the U.S.

Peter

Good find!

When I worked there long ago, I think there was a separate brown paper bag (I'd guess 20-25#) for the Pan and Thin styles of dough. Yes, I remember now, one bag had red lettering on it and the other had black or green lettering so it was harder to confuse the two. The water was added to the Hobart using a pitcher with markings for Pan or Thin (much less water for the thin). Then I think there was a pouch containing the yeast (and maybe salt, sugar, and other dry additives) would go in and the mixer was turned on to stir the mix to dissolve. Then squirts of oil from a gallon bottle...a few pumps (maybe 1/4 cup each) for the Pan and maybe twice that for the Thin.

Then the flour bags were emptied into the Hobart. The Pan dough mixed longer and came out cohesive, while the Thin came out much less cohesive and was dumped into a bag/container to rise all day long next to the sheeter.

My latest try at the PH Thin N' Crispy dough used the following recipe.

200g Water9g salt500g flour45g Oil9g honey1/4 t IDY

I was planning to cut this in half for 2 16" cracker crusts on a cutter pan, but I struggled rolling it out and ended up adding more dough to achieve the size I needed for the pan. I'd say I used maybe 600g of the dough for one 16" pan.

The result was good but too much like a crunchy pie crust and not crackery enough. I did a pre bake for 5 minutes at 500 and then while I prepared my topping the crust cooled on the counter for maybe 10 minutes. The bake time with ingredients was another 13 minutes. I think I could shorten the pre bake to 3-4 minutes and do the full bake at 13.

Looks tasty, I like your topping combo but it is waay too much stuff for me on a T&C. Also probably the cause for your dissatisfaction with the crust...those are very moisture laden toppings. Do you have a baker's % formula that you worked off of on this dough? It's hard for me to comment without seeing that...

Looks tasty, I like your topping combo but it is waay too much stuff for me on a T&C. Also probably the cause for your dissatisfaction with the crust...those are very moisture laden toppings. Do you have a baker's % formula that you worked off of on this dough? It's hard for me to comment without seeing that...

I have a baker's % but not with me at work. From memory it was a 40% hydration dough. The oil was around 9%.

It does seem like a lot of toppings, but it didn't produce a lot of moisture and the slices were stiff enough that there was no droop when held up by the cornicione. Perhaps the pesto, placed down first like pizza sauce normally would be, kept the other ingredients from making the dough soggy (a lot of OO in pesto).

My last time eating at Pizza Hut was on July 6, 2010, in Pacific, Missouri (near St. Louis), about 2,350 miles into my walk across the United States. It was hotter than hell that day (like almost every day that summer), so when I got into a town area, I went into Pizza Hut, mainly to cool down (but also in hopes that I might end up with some food). The waitress was very friendly and got me a big glass of ice water.

I needed to rock, so I played some songs on the jukebox. Since it was nearly the end of the lunch buffet and the place was empty aside from me, the waitress told me I could help myself to whatever was left at the buffet table.

So I did.

Thank you for reminding me about that. It's one of many precious memories that sometimes get misplaced after you do something like what I did.

Disclaimer: Don't necessarily believe anything I say here. My brain ain't quite right anymore (unless it is). If I come off as rude or argumentative, that's probably not my intention. Rather, that's just me being honest, to myself and everyone else; partly because I don't have enough time left to BS either you or myself. If you are offended by anything I say, it's probably because you think lying to people (to be "polite") is a good idea. I don't.

Disclaimer: Don't necessarily believe anything I say here. My brain ain't quite right anymore (unless it is). If I come off as rude or argumentative, that's probably not my intention. Rather, that's just me being honest, to myself and everyone else; partly because I don't have enough time left to BS either you or myself. If you are offended by anything I say, it's probably because you think lying to people (to be "polite") is a good idea. I don't.

I read here that they switched over to using frozen dough...anybody know when that was?

I think they started using frozen dough in about 1992, but only for personal pan pizzas; probably only in select units. The rest of the dough was made in-store then; even the pan dough for other sizes. (It just occurred to me that most delivery units don't even offer personal pan pizza. The only reason my store had personal pan pizzas was because we delivered a ton of them to the cafeteria at the Ohio State University hospital.)

I worked at another delivery unit shortly in 1994, and I really can't remember if that unit used any frozen dough.

Disclaimer: Don't necessarily believe anything I say here. My brain ain't quite right anymore (unless it is). If I come off as rude or argumentative, that's probably not my intention. Rather, that's just me being honest, to myself and everyone else; partly because I don't have enough time left to BS either you or myself. If you are offended by anything I say, it's probably because you think lying to people (to be "polite") is a good idea. I don't.

And for the "traditional hand-tossed," too, which I guess didn't exist in the 70s.

Back in the 70's, PH came out with an alternative crust to their original thin & crispy, some time during the Ford administration. The alternative was called Thick & Chewy, and it was very similar to what the hand-tossed is today.

My memory isn't what it used to be, but I seem to recall first seeing pan pizzas at PH around 1980, give or take a year. The pan pizzas were so popular that PH pretty much did away with the Thick & Chewy crust, but later came back with the hand-tossed as an alternative (early 90's?) which is similar to, but not quite the same as, the thick & chewy crust (not as thick, for one thing). As much as PH has played around with crust styles over more recent years, I can't keep track of them past the 90's.

I worked at PH when they only had a thin crust pizza (early 70's). All pizzas were made in a cutter pan. We used Blodget ovens with a slate floor which was later converted to a steel floor to improve recovery. The temperature was set at 600F and with the steel floor you had to get in and out quickly.

The last time I had a PH pizza, I was reminded of the Domino's commercial where the customer was complaining about the crust tasting like cardboard, I wished this PH crust was a good as cardboard

I worked at PH when they only had a thin crust pizza (early 70's). All pizzas were made in a cutter pan. We used Blodget ovens with a slate floor which was later converted to a steel floor to improve recovery. The temperature was set at 600F and with the steel floor you had to get in and out quickly.

The last time I had a PH pizza, I was reminded of the Domino's commercial where the customer was complaining about the crust tasting like cardboard, I wished this PH crust was a good as cardboard

Curt

Before about '84-85 Pizza Hut fell into the "American Cracker" category along with many including Village Inn, and even Shakey's. I really don't think this was a bad thing, but rather it just was what is was.Many including myself would like to sample these pizzas again. We all (those of us old enough that is...) were a part of this. Things have definitely come a long way but nostalgia is a VERY tough thing to beat. If anything comes of this...Shakey's will revive itself as it's trying to do, and we'll see an revitalization of this nostalgic form of Pizza.............or not. ONLY time will tell !!

Do you have a recollection of what pre-'84 PH T&C pizza was like before it "fell" into "American Cracker"....please try to expound mykall. Thanks

Pre 1980-4 Pizza Hut WAS definitely cracker! It did *NOT* "fall" into this after this date. Let's get this straight! Somewhere between 80-83 is when the big thick PAN PIZZAS w/ buffalo mozzi put PH on the map. This continued to about the late-eighties until the company lost itself again.

Pre 1980-4 Pizza Hut WAS definitely cracker! It did *NOT* "fall" into this after this date. Let's get this straight! Somewhere between 80-83 is when the big thick PAN PIZZAS w/ buffalo mozzi put PH on the map. This continued to about the late-eighties until the company lost itself again.

I'm sorry, I got a 'lil backward there with my understanding of what you said....you're absolutely correct, mykall, pre-84 T&C was absolutely the best! No bout a doubt it !!!

I read here that they switched over to using frozen dough...anybody know when that was?

I worked at Pizza Hut off and on from the late '80s to the late '90s. I forget when the hand tossed crust came out. It was the first frozen dough, at least at the Hut I worked at - number 312079 in Liberty, TX. I think it was the same dough that was used for stuffed crust when that came out. I'd forgotten about frozen personal pan dough until someone mentioned that. I think I vaguely remember switching to that before I left. When I left, I think it was '96 or '97, thin dough and pan dough for small, medium, and large pans were still made fresh.

To add a little to the Thin 'N Crispy discussion - when I worked there we started making dough at 08:00. We opened at 11:00, so the thin dough would start being used three hours or less after it was mixed. In a pinch there were times when we ran out and resorted to mixing a batch and using it almost immediately after mixing. I also remember that the mixing time for thin dough was three minutes.

Logged

Kevin

What's the definition of a legacy system? One that works!Errare humanum est, ignoscere caninum.

To add a little to the Thin 'N Crispy discussion - when I worked there we started making dough at 08:00. We opened at 11:00, so the thin dough would start being used three hours or less after it was mixed. In a pinch there were times when we ran out and resorted to mixing a batch and using it almost immediately after mixing. I also remember that the mixing time for thin dough was three minutes.

I'm sure we went in earlier than that but I don't recall the exact time, but yes, I remember the 3 minute mix and that the thin dough was useable almost immediately. I also remember the thin dough being extremely easy to use and almost totally lacking elasticity.

I'm sure we went in earlier than that but I don't recall the exact time

I remember one time I went in really early, around 17:00 the day before. I was scheduled to close one day and open the next day. I ended up saying in between and cleaning the oven. I don't miss those kind of hours.

Logged

Kevin

What's the definition of a legacy system? One that works!Errare humanum est, ignoscere caninum.

I remember one time I went in really early, around 17:00 the day before. I was scheduled to close one day and open the next day. I ended up saying in between and cleaning the oven. I don't miss those kind of hours.

As long as we are confessing... When customers would stay too long after closing, we would mop the floors with at mixture of clorox and ammonia cleaner. As most customers didn't have a gas mask handy, this was very effective at clearing out the dining area.

This is an informative post. I'm currently on a thin and crispy quest in a commercial space. Like others I too worked as a dough master for Pizza Hut, but this was only back in 2001. I am curious about the PHTAC that was made in the 1970's as I will be using a deck oven as it seems PH did at that time.

I remember making thin dough, and putting it in a trash can, and I remember how it smelled

I'm pretty sure we panned out some crisps after some time in the trash can, I could be wrong but I think it was left in there for a long time, a day perhaps. and then the pans were placed in the walkin. Grabbing a chunk of dough at room temperature sounds interesting but I wonder about the waste involved, if the dough wasn't used was it thrown out?

Disclaimer: Don't necessarily believe anything I say here. My brain ain't quite right anymore (unless it is). If I come off as rude or argumentative, that's probably not my intention. Rather, that's just me being honest, to myself and everyone else; partly because I don't have enough time left to BS either you or myself. If you are offended by anything I say, it's probably because you think lying to people (to be "polite") is a good idea. I don't.

At the Pizza Huts where I worked, all unused dough was thrown out at the end of each night. I didn't know this at the time, but their dough management scheme was quite inefficient.

Ha! Sorry to pick such an old topic for my first post (other than my introduction in the new member's forum) but this thread brought back lots of memories. First of all, when I was in high school in the late 70s/early 80s, a good friend of mine had a brother who would bring pizza dough home frequently from his job at Pizza Hut. We'd bake pies and watch Kung Fu movies and had the time of our lives.

More on topic, I'd like to say that I LOVED the original thin and crispy crust at Pizza Hut, just absolutely loved it. I grew up in a rural area and because we had a large family and were pretty blue collar, I didn't often get the opportunity to eat out. I still recall the first time ever eating in a Pizza Hut. I was probably 8 years old and was on the way home from a church trip to watch the Pittsburgh Pirates. We stopped at Pizza Hut, I had the thin crust pizza and thought I had died and gone to heaven.

I still live in a rural area and still don't eat out a lot but I'm glad to see others suggest that the thin and crispy at Pizza Hut today is nowhere near as good as it was "back in the day". I had thought that perhaps it seemed so different to me because of romantic memories from my childhood and I'm glad to know that I'm not crazy.